Stocks News

Treasury yields recovered modestly from historical lows Friday as investors sold government debt and swarmed back into stocks despite a report showing that half a million people lost their jobs last month.

The data was worse than economists predicted, and added to evidence that the United States is facing down a deep recession. When the economic outlook is poor, investors usually flock to Treasurys, considered the safest assets available.

But the bond market has already been bracing for bad news. Over the past week, Treasury yields have plunged to their lowest levels since the government started issuing them, and the lowest yield levels for equivalent assets since the 1940s and 1950s, according to analysts.

Regulators have shut down First Georgia Community Bank, the 23rd U.S. bank failure this year.

Best Buy Co. arrived in Mexico on Friday with the opening of its second-largest store worldwide.

Stock intended to eventually earn taxpayers a profit as part of the Bush administration's massive bank bailout has lost a third of its value a ' about $9 billion a ' in barely one month, according to an ...

Asian markets tried to rebound as investors set aside a wave of global layoffs and overnight losses on Wall Street, where stocks failed to get a boost from interest rate cuts in Europe.

News of a rapidly weakening job sent stocks sliding Friday as investors feared that the recession will be deeper and more prolonged than many have expected.

Stock intended to eventually earn taxpayers a profit as part of the Bush administration's massive bank bailout has lost a third of its value _ about $9 billion _ in barely one month, according to an Associated Press analysis. Shares in virtually every bank that received federal money have remained below the prices the government negotiated.

Most of the Treasury Department's investments since late October have been in preferred bank stocks, more than $180 billion worth, with investments in giants like Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, and many small community banks. But the government also negotiated options to buy up to 1.2 billion shares of common bank stock that was valued at $27 billion.

European Union antitrust regulators on Friday cleared Bank of America Corp. to buy Merrill Lynch & Co., saying they saw no problems with the $50 billion takeover that will create the largest U.S. financial services company.

The deal, announced Sept. 15, is part of the rapid restructuring of the U.S. financial system amid the global credit crisis. Merrill agreed to be bought by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp. just days after rival investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index opened down after Wall Street fell overnight but recovered to end up 0.9 percent, or 17.15 points, to 2018.66. The Shenzhen Composite Index for China's smaller second ...

The chief executive of Fairfax Media, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald, quit Friday after three years at the helm of a company that has lost advertising dollars to the Internet and is now grappling with an economic downturn.

David Kirk, a former captain of New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team, gave no explanation for stepping down, but his resignation comes amid shrinking advertising revenue and staff cuts that have seen Fairfax shares fall nearly 70 percent this year.

Kirk, said it had been a privilege to lead Fairfax during a challenging time.